According to media reporting, Kenyan and world meteorological experts have predicted high chances of El Nino rains in the October-December short rains season. Capitalize on these El Nino rains, am amassing adequate farm yard manure to mitigate denitrification and leaching common phenomena in high intensity rain.
Denitrification is where soil nitrogen is lost into the atmosphere through the action of denitrifying bacteria. This is common in compacted, waterlogged soils where micro-organisms use nitrates reducing them to nitrous oxide or nitrogen and ammonia which are lost as gases into the atmosphere. Excessive nitrogen looses are experienced during the short periods when soils become waterlogged which can occur in El Nino rains.
Leaching : During the wet season like the one anticipated in El Nino rains, the rate of precipitation exceeds that of water evaporation from the soil surface. In such a situation, water percolates in the soil and washes out some soil nutrients and deposits them in the lower layers of the soil horizon, beyond the root range. When this occurs, the soil is said to be leached.
To remedy these anticipated soil fertility decline during forecast El Nino rains. I am amassing organic manure to apply in early maturing maize cultivars am intending to propagates. For organic matter not only increases the population of beneficial bacteria in the soil, it also steps up their activities hence increasing the supply of nutrients to plants. This is supported by the fact that the population and activity of nitrogen fixing bacteria increases as the volume of green manure is stepped up, leading to a higher supply of nitrogen to plants noting nitrogenous fertilizers are highly soluble in soil water.